THOMPSON–Benjamin H.

W. E. A. THOMPSON, A. B., a native of Bedford County, Tenn., was born Nov. 28, 1848. His father was a licensed preacher in the Methodist Church, but having an affection of the throat was obliged to give up his ministerial duties and engage in farming. His mother was Ellen C. (Williams) Thompson.

Our subject remained with his parents on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, attending school when he could be conveniently spared from the farm. In the fall of 1869 he taught school at Mount Zion, Bedford County, and in 1870 clerked in a dry goods house at Unionville. The spring of 1871 he spent in school at Chapel Hill and spent the fall at Unionville in the same manner. Early in 1872 he entered the Tennessee University, where he graduated in 1874 with the degree of A. B. He chose teaching as his profession and began work at Unionville, his native village. In the summer of 1875 he left Unionville and taught five months at Middleton, Rutherford County. In the spring of 1876 he accepted the principalship of the Center Grove High School, where he is engaged at the present writing.

December 26, 1876, he wedded Nannie Floyd, of this county, and by her became the father of four children: Benjamin H., Mary G., Annie E. and Ellen F. Our subject is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and is a man of good social standing and influence in this section.

Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins

Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.